news focus When Congress resumes work next month, lawmakers are expected to consider a proposal that would give seekers of US citizenship a new option: dying while on active duty in the US armed forces.

If enacted, the legislation would allow the next of kin of foreign-born men and women killed while on active duty to submit citizenship applications to the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service within two years of the law's entry into force.

A similar measure expired in 1992. As a result, survivors must ask Congress to pass a special act conferring posthumous citizenship upon relatives who died in battle under the US flag.

The proposed Posthumous Citizenship Restoration Act of 2001 does not call for any additional benefits for survivors. Posthumous citizenship is honorary only and does not confer entitlements to surviving relatives.

The US Army says there are some 6,600 foreign-born soldiers among its active-duty ranks. Foreigners also have joined the Air Force, Marines, and Navy. The Selective Service agency estimates some 125,880 'aliens of various nationalities' have enlisted or been inducted into the Army or Navy as of Jun 30, 1945.

Irish backers

The immigration service does not have statistics on the number of posthumous citizenship awarded. Among living foreign-born veterans who served the United States in the two World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the invasion of Grenada, 96 were naturalised in 1998, the most recent year for which the agency has numbers.

The new bill would allow relatives to apply, within the two-year window of opportunity, regardless of when their deceased kin served - even if they fought in World War I or earlier.

However, they might have problems proving their eligibility. The Army, for example, only keeps records of active-duty soldiers for six months. The new law would leave it to the Justice Department, under which the immigration service falls, to decide what documentation to require.

Three major ex-service groups - the Retired Officers Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and American Legion - have endorsed the bill.

Irish immigrants who fought in the Korean War have been the proposal's most prominent backers. Its sponsors are three House of Representatives Democrats from Massachusetts, a state with a large Irish-American population.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians, a cultural and historical society, says it has identified 15 Korean War veterans of Irish descent who never became US citizens.

Hmong exploitation

Meanwhile, in states like Minnesota and California, living veterans of the US 'Secret War' in Indochina await the benefits of legislation designed to help them obtain citizenship.

Legislators have complained that insufficient funding has been made available to implement the Hmong Veterans' Naturalisation Act of 2000, which eases naturalisation requirements for former fighters from the Hmong community - reportedly the poorest ethnic group in the United States.

Minnesota is home to the largest Hmong population in the United States, some 70,000 people.

More than 35,000 Hmong soldiers lost their lives while fighting alongside U.S. troops during the Vietnam War - dying at ten times the rate of US soldiers. The United States trained and armed the Hmong soldiers and paid them three dollars per month.

Where US pilots were sent home after a year or after completing 100 missions, Hmong soldiers never stopped fighting. Children as young as 12 were enlisted as the adult population of soldiers dwindled.

In exchange for their service, the U.S. government gave the Hmong its promise of protection. But when the US military fled Southeast Asia, the guerrillas were left to fend for themselves.

Translator help

Some 100,000 refugees were left unprotected. Many were massacred as they waited for evacuation planes that never came. Ironically, during the war, many had been sent into Laos and North Vietnam to rescue downed US air crews.

Hmong and Lao veterans who migrated to the United States were unable to obtain US citizenship because cultural barriers and a lack of education and written language skills meant they could not demonstrate the English proficiency and awareness of US affairs required for naturalisation.

One of the provisions of the 2000 Hmong naturalisation law allows them to take the citizenship test with a translator. The legislation applies only to those who served in the Vietnam War and are already living in the United States.

The above article was first written for the Inter-Press Service (IPS).